Secretary Clinton Attends NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting

On December 4, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Brussels for her ninth and final NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, began a typically industrious day by meeting with Department of State staff and families downtown at the U.S. Embassy in Belgium. Next, she moved across town to NATO Headquarters, arriving at mid-day and meeting immediately with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. She then conducted her first bilateral meeting with her Bulgarian counterpart, Nikolay Mladenov.

Secretary Clinton then joined other NATO Foreign Ministers for a working lunch of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), including Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, where many topics of strategic interest were discussed. Afghanistan, in particular, is an area where NATO and Russia have found ways to cooperate in recent years, through such initiatives as joint counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics officer training, helicopter training, spare parts funding for the Afghan Air Force, the NATO-Russia Cooperative Airspace Initiative, and expanded transit agreements for goods going to and from Afghanistan via Russian rail, road, and air routes.

During a press event, Secretary General Rasmussen noted that the Foreign Ministers took the opportunity to assure Minister Lavrov that any deployment of Patriot missiles in Turkey would be defensive in nature and not support a no-fly zone or any offensive operations.

Following the NRC lunch, Ministers held a North Atlantic Council (NAC) to discuss a range of NATO issues. Lady Catherine Ashton of the EU also joined to take part in discussions on Kosovo and EU cooperation. Secretary Clinton then met with her Polish colleague, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski.

You can follow the Secretary's trip on www.state.gov, and learn more about U.S. engagement at NATO by visiting our mission's website.

Comments

Comments

Julia L.

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California, USA

December 6, 2012

Julia L. in California writes:

I'm just seeing how this site works.

Eric

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New Mexico, USA

December 8, 2012

Eric in New Mexico writes:

Like Jim Jones and his Koolaid, Assad is preparing to take as many as he can with him when he goes over oblivion's cliff.

And I still think we out to bill Iran Trillions of dollars for their chants of Death to America before we go off a fiscal cliff.

Had a lot to say over the years regarding the political stupidity of dictators and terrorists, and how not to go to war with America, and it's good to have friends in the world when the cow pie hits the fan and things are looking like we'll end up in the mucky-muck again, engaged with all military measures to save populations from utter terror and the scourge of madmen.

I do hate being right most of the time, and then wondering why folks just don't seems to grasp these things until 40k are dead in Syria, and no end in site...Iran on the march to force a war upon us, simply out of arrogence and malevolence of apostates without reason who base their hatred of America on religious idiology.

Is it any wonder then NATO looks to us to define the terms of engagement?

To bring this organization some purpose and solidarity in being?

Alas poor Turkey, standing in the line of fire from idiots of mayhem and destruction of the Syrian people...yes lend them a partiot or three, it's the least we can do, along with the humanitarian aid...but when do we end it, the slaughter that is?

Yes Assad has made his decision to use Chemical weapons, anyone with a brain can see it as fact, would you give him choice as to his timing in using them?

Or isn't 40 thousand dead enough to convince this government that it's not just Assad that will be held accountable, but that the entire world will be, one way or another for what has happeneed, and what happens next?

I've said my peace, now get on with it!

EJ

Irv

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California, USA

December 10, 2012

Irv in California writes:

The thing that makes NATO seem more and more of threat is the destruction of international law, which began in the 1930s when Hitler occupied the Sudetenland using the pretext of "R2P" ("Right To Protect"), claiming that Czech citizens of German descent were the victims of human rights abuses. Then on April 22, 1999, Tony Blair formalized this concept as a new version of international law, superseding the right of national sovereignty which began in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, and was re-emphasized in the United Nations Charter. With the advent of the Blair Doctrine, we are in a new era where the basic principle is "Might Makes Right." It is a frightening time to be alive.